This invention relates generally to apparatus for automatic sewing of fabric pieces, and more particularly to automated apparatus for rapidly hemming successive pieces of fabric.
Apparatus is known for mechanically conveying fabric pieces to a sewing machine for stitching. Additionally, it is known to use a curved element for folding the edge of a piece of fabric passed along a stitching path to form a hem to be stitched by the sewing machine. However, while the sewing machines have been capable of very high rates of throughput, the overall performance of such assembly operations has been compromised by the inability of the apparatus to combine effectively the stitching operation, severing of the stitched chain or chains linking successive pieces of fabric and the stacking of the stitched and separated pieces of fabric for subsequent use. This problem has resulted largely from the lack of an integrated system incorporating not only the stitching and transport apparatus and thread clipping mechanism, but also a finished piece removal and stacking apparatus.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide apparatus which incorporate into an operable unit all of the necessary functions of workpiece transport, edge folding, stitching, stitch chain severing, and workpiece removal and stacking in order to provide an efficient apparatus for hemming short pieces in garment manufacture.